'I'm hanging on to my £680,000 pay-off', says former BBC executive

A former BBC executive whose £680,000 pay-off was highlighted in a scathing
official report has insisted she will not return any money, and claimed that
the broadcaster prevented her from working her notice period.

Caroline Thomson, who was the chief operating officer, insisted that her compensation was “completely legitimate” and was justified because she still did not have a full-time job.

A Conservative MP today called on former BBC executives who received big pay-offs to consider following the example of Roly Keating, who sent back his £375,000. Rob Wilson, the MP for Reading East, said that he was considering asking police to investigate after one in four former BBC executives received more than they were entitled to. The National Audit Office, which wrote the report, calculated that £1 million too much had been spent on pay-offs.

Ms Thomson, 59, quit the BBC last year after she was overlooked as the new director-general. She now works three days a week as the acting chief executive of the English National Ballet. Her £680,400 settlement, which comprised salary in lieu of notice as well as a redundancy payment to reflect 17 years’ service, was highlighted by the public spending watchdog, although it was in line with the BBC’s policy at the time.

Challenged after addressing civil servants in west London today, she said: “My pay-off was entirely in line with my contract. I offered to stay and work my notice and it was refused. I tried to stay longer, I didn’t want to be made redundant, I wanted to stay, and that was not what they decided to do. I feel my pay-off was completely legitimate. I still have not got a full time job.”

The National Audit Office found that in the three years to the end of December, 150 departing executives were paid £25 million in compensation settlements. In a sample, one in four payments was found to have been in excess of contractual requirements. It said that payments were inconsistent and not subject to proper scrutiny.

Mr Keating, a former controller of BBC Two who is now chief executive of the British Library, was so appalled to be told that the approval of his pay-off had been “seriously deficient” that he returned the money. Asked whether other executives should return some of their pay-offs, Ms Thomson said: “Every case is individual.”

The BBC should stop apologising and start being more ambitious, its new head of news has said.

James Harding, the former Times editor who has been appointed director of news and current affairs at the BBC, said it had made its “fair share’’ of apologies, but licence-fee payers did not want an apologetic national broadcaster.

Mr Harding said: “The BBC has rightly made its fair share of apologies over the past year. I don’t want an apologetic BBC, I want an ambitious BBC.”

Asked if trust in the BBC was damaged beyond repair, he said: “One of the strong consequences of Savile and McAlpine is that it has shown a) that there is an extraordinarily resilient level of public trust in the BBC and b), that there are and have been such very high expectations of the BBC.’’